The NFL has ballooned into the wealthiest sports league in the world, and yet globally it hasn’t caught on. Baseball is popular in Japan and much of Latin America. The NBA has players from all over the world and counts fans in most of Europe and parts of the Middle East and China.

Today, they will turn on the lights in a London soccer palace called Wembley Stadium, and the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants will play a regular-season NFL game for the first time outside of North America. The NFL says it will stage many such games in European, Canadian and Mexican stadiums over the next few years in hopes that it can build a worldwide fan base and sell its television rights overseas.

“Like Bob Dylan says, ‘You’re either being busy being born or you’re being busy dying,’ ” Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said. “I think you have to continue to grow.”

The league has failed in previous international efforts – a few exhibitions in locations such as Tokyo, Barcelona and Berlin and a European developmental league that folded after 16 years. But Mark Waller, a native of Wales who was hired last year from the British liquor industry to run the NFL’s international pursuits, said the game needs to be sold from the top.

Gone would be the wilting NFL Europa, the developmental league that had been dear to the previous NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue. In its place would be real games played in places such as London, Montreal, Berlin and Mexico City.

“This is different, this is the real thing,” Waller said. “I think in this day and age with consumers and fans around the world, they know what is real and what is not. When we did a lot of research, there was this underlying belief that they weren’t getting the best available.”

• New York Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma was placed on injured reserve because of a knee injury, ending his season after seven games.

“This is a not a career-threatening injury and the doctors expect a full recovery,” said Mitch Frankel, one of Vilma’s representatives.

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